DANBURY, CONN. — The Western Connecticut State University online literary journal, “Poor Yorick: A Journal of Rediscovered Objects,” went live on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2014. The free journal features creative writing inspired by historical artifacts and can be found at www.pooryorickjournal.com. It is a publication of the university’s Master of Fine Arts in Professional and Creative Writing program with cooperation from the WCSU History Department and Museum Studies program.

Erik Ofgang, the journal’s founding editor, said, “By combining creative and factual works, we’re looking at the past in a unique way. There are hundreds of literary journals, but as far as we know, nobody is doing anything like this, and the response from museums and the literary world has been amazing.”

The journal is partnered with five museums: the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport; the Danbury Museum and Historical Society; the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe in Shoreham, New York; the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury; and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery in Exeter, England.

The premiere of the journal includes a poem by Kimberly Roberts inspired by the Cardiff Giant, a real-life hoax so bold even P.T. Barnum was jealous; an essay by Rebecca Reynolds on the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary discussing the ancient legends surrounding a mystical beast so ridiculous most fiction writers would hesitate to make it up; poems by G.C. Waldrep and Andy Brown that explore the fascination with both the literal and figurative probing of what lies beneath the human skin; a 45-million-year-old meteorite transformed into a book by Ian Boyden; and several other unique historical and cultural surprises.

“Poor Yorick’s” current editor, Melissa Gordon, said, “We have received so much enthusiasm over the concept of combining writing, history and culture. The pieces we have rolled out are true representations of how important it is to remember our past.”

The objects spotlighted in these pieces are from places including the Royal Academy of Arts in England, the Hallingdal Museum in Norway, The Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown, New York, and the Garden Museum in London. In addition to images, stories and poems, the journal also features informational essays and interviews from experts to deepen perspective on the objects being brought to light. Dr. Corinna Wagner, for example, from the University of Exeter, sheds some light on the poems by Brown and Waldrep in an interview about the fascination in the medical field and with artists in dissection and human anatomy and movement.

The journal’s blog was launched in September and contains posts that further its mission. “Friday Skull Talks” brings to light objects and images from the past and “Flashes of the Past” features book reviews from books published before 2000. The blog also features a series called “Project Book Lust,” which probes the world of antique and rare book collecting, and in turn inspired the journal’s staff to launch an oldest book contest.

Works will be published on a rolling basis, and writers are encouraged to continue submitting pieces based on lost objects and images of material culture.

The idea for the journal arose at the 2012 M.F.A. program summer residency when former Connecticut Poet Laureate Marilyn Nelson read from her collection “Fortunes’ Bones: The Manumission Requiem.” This work was commissioned by the Mattatuck Museum, which housed titular bones of an 18th-century Waterbury slave named Fortune. After Fortune’s death, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Preserved Porter kept his skeleton for anatomical study. Fortune’s identity was subsequently forgotten until Waterbury’s African American Historical Committee solved its historical mystery. Last year, 215 years after his death, Fortune was finally laid to rest in Riverside Cemetery in Waterbury.

The Mattatuck Museum is spotlighted on “Poor Yorick’s” Museum Partners page and Nelson serves on the journal’s Advisory Board. An interview with Nelson is featured on the blog. Also on the Advisory Board are Dr. Brian Clements, poet, professor and coordinator of WCSU’s M.F.A. program, and founding editor of the small press Firewheel Editions and of Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics; and WCSU Associate Professor of History and Non-Western Cultures Dr. Leslie Lindenauer, an historian.

For more information, contact Editor Melissa Gordon at editor@pooryorickjournal.com.

Western Connecticut State University offers outstanding faculty in a range of quality academic programs. Our diverse university community provides students an enriching and supportive environment that takes advantage of the unique cultural offerings of Western Connecticut and New York. Our vision: To be an affordable public university with the characteristics of New England’s best small private universities.